RCN Local Learning Events

The Institute of Ageing and Health works alongside other organisations to raise issues facing older people in our society.

This year we are supporting the Royal College of Nursing’s Local Learning Event Programme in the West Midlands to help educate nursing staff around this important agenda. Click here for the programme of events.

Become an IAH Member

Membership of the Institute is available to anybody who has an interest in older people. As the emphasis of the Institute is on inter-disciplinary working, our membership is particularly appropriate for people who wish to share skills and knowledge with others.
Whilst the geographical focus of the Institute is the West Midlands, membership is open to anyone who shares our objective.

Call for papers

The IAH invites papers for its journal 'Ageing & Health'. Contributions to Ageing & Health enable us to share research, reflections and stories to help improve ageing and health in the West Midlands; we are looking for articles that present views and perspectives from a wide variety of disciplines related to health and ageing.

The deadline for articles for our next journal is Monday 15 January 2018.

Latest Blogs

Latest Blogs

Although there is evidence of good care and some equality for older people we still hear accounts in the media about how they continue to experience social exclusion, marginalisation and oppression at an international level. These are often, (according to Duffy et al 2012), due to the negative stereotypical views of older people that are prevalent in society. Dabove in 2013 called for an international convention on human rights for older people. Whilst she questions whether older people should have different rights she suggests that there is a need for a convention with more consistence to the tools and institutions, principles, rules laws and judicial practices that are accessed and available to the older person. She highlights the issues of capacity, empowerment, freedom, civil rights, integrity and health, abuse, property rights, legal issues, social rights and security and access to justice. In October this year the All Parliamentary Group for Ageing and Older People in the UK launched a major new inquiry into human rights of older people. This aims to improve the protection of rights of older people with an international legally binding agreement addressing the issues raised above. These changes have already been achieved for people with disabilities through the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities and for children with a further Convention on the Rights of the Child, it is now timely for there to be an additional one for older people.

Watching the Invictus Games last week prompted me to draw parallels between sudden onset disability and that associated with old age. While watching I was reminded of two patients I’d cared for over a decade ago whose problems in old age were attributed to the trauma of war. Working as a nurse specialist for older people in a community intermediate care team both men were referred by their GPs for further assessment.

What led to the ‘diagnosis’ of war trauma was comprehensive geriatric assessment [CGA] and the fact that I worked in a multidisciplinary [MDT] team that meant my patients were speedily referred to others when necessary. CGA is the best evidence base we have for providing care for older people with complex needs and it is well accepted that those that have access to MDTs do best.

CGA considers the whole person, covering 5 domains of their life including medical, social, mental health, environmental and functional. It allows us to gather information about usual and present state to identify problems and draw up a care plan to address each issue in turn in order to optimise overall health and wellbeing.

Death and preferred end of life care can be a difficult discussion for any individual living with terminal illness. However, when that conversation is with someone diagnosed with dementia – and therefore, may not have the mental capacity to plan and organise for the future – it can become a lot more challenging.

Advanced Care Planning (ACP) is instrumental in ensuring a patient with dementia – and any other individual living with a life-limiting illness – has the right care and support in place to enable them to live their last days in peace and dignity. Yet, despite its obvious benefits, the responsibility of ACP doesn’t directly lie with one specific healthcare professional. Instead, it is up to any healthcare professional to raise the conversation when they think it is most appropriate for the individual.